Pages

[Review] Acer Spin 5 SP513-51-53FC The new Standard is Here

Pros:

Full HD Display

7th generation Core i5

256 GB SSD

8 GB DDR4

Up to 10 hour battery life

Cons:

No dedicated graphics

No DVD Drive

Convertibles are taking over the market and with good reason. While previously convertible laptops would be limited to a more basic function and more basic key components. Nowadays you can find convertibles that can give high end laptops a run for their money without costing you an arm and a leg in the process.

Such is the case of the latest Acer Spin 5 SP513-51-53FC. This new laptop packs a 7th generation Intel Core i5 processor, a Full HD display, up to 10 hours of battery life and a very good performance thanks to its good graphics chip and 8 GB of the latest generation RAM. But, is this laptop worth your money? That's what we're here to find out as we dive straight towards our review of the Acer Spin 5 SP513-51-53FC.

A versatile design

The design on the Acer Spin 5 SP513-51-53FC is what we like to call versatile and not just because its a convertible but also because it can go from looking like a tablet to looking like a business type computer with its polished black design and formal appearance.

The display is one of its most attractive features as it boosts a 13.3 inch diagonal with a Full HD resolution and LED-Backlit technology with multi-touch support. What's more, for those of us who spend many hours looking at the screen, it comes with Acer's BlueLight Shield technology which reduces blue light emissions to cut down on the fatigue that such lighting can induce on our eyes.

What about the keyboard?

Something we really like about the chiclet keyboard is that it's backlit, something that always comes in handy wether you actually make use of it or not. Spacing between the keys is also pretty good at making the whole typing experience more natural than other more compact convertibles.

Is it really portable?

The thing about convertibles is that unless they're truly portable they hardly make much sense for most of us. In fact, when I see a 15 inch convertible, while I understand there's a market for that kind of product I can't for the life of me see the need for it. That said, this model is pretty portable, weighing 3.3 pounds and managing to measure just shy of 0.8 inches.

What's performance like?

Performance on the Acer Spin 5 SP513-51-53FC is quite good as this is hardly an entry level computer. In fact, it has one of our most recommended processors, an Intel Core i5-7200U model with a base speed of 2.5 GHz and a maximum clock speed of 3.1 GHz with 3 MB of cache and two cores working 4 threads.

All of this translates into one of the best processors currently available in the consumer market. One that strikes the perfect balance between performance and battery life, which helps out when it comes down to defining the 10 hour battery life on this convertible.

Said processor is coupled by 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and nothing short of 256 GB of SSD storage. This is, in short, the perfect combo you could possibly conjure up within the mid range market.

Really, for any user, as demanding as he/she might be, this set of key specs are more than enough for 99% of us to get the job done and then some. You don't have to limit yourself as you can multitask freely and the speed that's given by an SSD storage unit such as this one means you can say goodbye to long boot-ups and shut downs, amongst many other things that will become much faster and seamless.

Overall, we simply love this set of key components, not just for the home user but also for the office user who's looking for a machine to get the work done without having to go through annoying lags and the sorts.

How's battery life?

Battery life, as mentioned previously in our review of the Acer Spin 5 SP513-51-53FC is along the 10 hour mark. However, being that those are official numbers, you'd be wise to adjust your expectations to something more modest along the lines of 7-8 hours.

In my experience, when a manufacturer claims 10 hours that will typically mean roughly 6 hours of video usage, 8 hours browsing the web at 80% brightness and maybe a full 10 hours editing documents with Bluetooth and WiFi disabled.

For coding environments you should expect roughly 5-6 hours at 75% brightness depending on how much code compiling you actually do versus how much code you write.

Is this a good laptop for gaming?

Up until recently finding a convertible that was suited for some serious gaming was a pretty big challenge. That all changed when wefound the Acer R5-571TG-7229, which finally places a dedicated Nvidia Graphics chip on a convertible.

That said, this model does not bode a dedicated graphics chip but rather an integrated Intel HD 620 graphics chip which means that gaming, boys and girls, is not really on the table.

Sure you can edit videos, stream Full HD content and make use of photoshop for the odd editing here and there but you should not expect a computer that wasn't designed for graphical performance to deliver much more than the basics in this segment.

How about the connectivity options?

As is to be expected on a convertible of this calibre, we've got a pretty solid connectivity base.

1 HDMI port

1 USB 3.0 port

2 USB 2.0 ports

1 SD card reader

You'll also find Bluetooth support, an HD webcam and WiFi 802.11 ac connectivity with MU-MIMO technology which basically means that you can manage download speeds up to three times faster than traditional b/g/n connections assuming you've got yourself a compatible router (if not then you won't notice any speed increase).

As expected, there's no DVD drive on this model (nor is there one on any convertible that I've seen).

What's the verdict? Final thoughts and opinions

Closing up our review of the Acer Spin 5 SP513-51-53FC , we've gotta say that if we could marry a laptop we would likely marry this one. Honestly, I can't find anything that I don't like about this computer. It strikes the perfect balance between price and specs but aside from that it's got pretty much everything I need wrapped in a beautiful little package that also doubles as a tablet, what more could I need?

The only people I would not recommend this laptop to is those who need to work with hardcore graphics, for those people I'd recommend the Acer R5-571TG-7229which brings a dedicated graphics to the mix. Other than that I can't really think of any reason I would not go ahead and purchase this computer, can you?

No comments
:

Post a Comment

9to5gadgets.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.